Thursday, October 9, 2014

Multitasking Damages Your Brain And Career

You’ve likely heard that multitasking is
problematic, but new studies show that it kills your performance and may even
damage your brain.

Research conducted at Stanford University found
that multitasking is less productive than doing a single thing at a time. The
researchers also found that people who are regularly bombarded with several
streams of electronic information cannot pay attention, recall information, or
switch from one job to another as well as those who complete one task at a
time.

A Special Skill?

But what if some people
have a special gift for multitasking? The Stanford researchers compared groups
of people based on their tendency to multitask and their belief that it helps
their performance. They found that heavy multitaskers—those who multitask a lot
and feel that it boosts their performance—were actually worse at
multitasking than those who like to do a single thing at a time. The frequent
multitaskers performed worse because they had more trouble organizing their
thoughts and filtering out irrelevant information, and they wereslower at
switching from one task to another. Ouch.

Multitasking reduces your efficiency and
performance because your brain can only focus on one thing at a time. When you
try to do two things at once, your brain lacks the capacity to perform both
tasks successfully.

Multitasking Lowers IQ

Research also shows that, in addition to slowing
you down, multitasking lowers your IQ. A study at the University of London
found that participants who multitasked during cognitive tasks experienced IQ
score declines that were similar to what they’d expect if they had smoked
marijuana or stayed up all night. IQ drops of 15 points for multitasking men
lowered their scores to the average range of an 8-year-old child.

So the next time you’re writing your boss an
email during a meeting, remember that your cognitive capacity is being
diminished to the point that you might as well let an 8-year-old write it for
you.

Brain Damage From
Multitasking

It was long believed
that cognitive impairment from multitasking was temporary, but new research
suggests otherwise. Researchers at the University of Sussex in
the UK compared the amount of time people spend on multiple devices (such as
texting while watching TV) to MRI scans of their brains. They found that high
multitaskers had less brain density in the anterior cingulate cortex, a region
responsible for empathy as well as cognitive and emotional control.

While more research is needed to determine if
multitasking is physically damaging the brain (versus existing brain damage
that predisposes people to multitask), it’s clear that multitasking has
negative effects. Neuroscientist Kep Kee Loh, the study’s lead author,
explained the implications: “I feel that it is important to create an awareness
that the way we are interacting with the devices might be changing the way we
think and these changes might be occurring at the level of brain structure.”

Learning From
Multitasking

If you’re prone to multitasking, this is not a
habit you’ll want to indulge—it clearly slows you down and decreases the
quality of your work. Even if it doesn’t cause brain damage, allowing yourself
to multitask will fuel any existing difficulties you have with concentration,
organization, and attention to detail.

Multitasking in meetings
and other social settings indicates low self- and social-awareness, two
emotional intelligence (EQ) skills that are critical to success at work. TalentSmart has
tested more than a million people and found that 90% of top performers have
high EQs. If multitasking does indeed damage the anterior cingulate cortex (a
key brain region for EQ) as current research suggests, it will lower your EQ in
the process.

So every time you
multitask you aren’t just harming your performance in the moment; you may very
well be damaging an area of your brain that’s critical to your future success
at work.

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Rev. Sam Sewell, is Director of Best Self USA, a Pastoral Psychotherapist, serves on the faculty of Naples Community Hospital as an instructor for Clinical Pastoral Education, President of the Theological Center in Naples, a member of Mensa where he serves as Gifted Youth Coordinator, a U.S. Navy Veteran, and a Member of the Association For Intelligence Officers. He is a frequent commentator on mental health and religious issues.His award winning research on family issues is published in several languages. Member of Sigma Delta Chi Honor Society

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